编者按：为了更好地进行中国文学海外传播工作，让中国作品在海外被发现（Discover）、被理解（Understand）、被传播（Express），中国文化译研网（CCTSS）邀请国内资深文学主编及文学评论家，精选出近两百部短中长篇小说，形成第一期《中国当代文学作品指南》（简称“指南”），从更具权威性、价值性的角度出发，更好地向世界展示中国当代文学精品，传播中国书香。

夏读书，日正长，打开书，喜洋洋。现将“指南”中的精品文学作品以一日一推的方式向读者呈现，让我们不负一夏好时光。

刘震云丨《一地鸡毛》

推荐理由

《一地鸡毛》是新写实小说的代表性作品。小说通过小职员小林夫妇的日常家庭琐事，表现了二十世纪八、九十年代中国社会底层小人物艰难困顿的灰色人生。灰色的日常生活是从馊豆腐开始的。从馊豆腐开始的故事，注定了它的凡俗与卑琐。因而刘震云的作品都没有戏剧化的故事情节，没有高潮，它的平淡与流水账式的日常记录，成了一个个俗得不能再俗，卑微得不能再卑微的事件的“堆砌”。但刘震云的高明之处也许正在于透过这一件件俗事的“堆砌”，使我们视而不见，毫无意义的日常生活有了“意义”，它所引发的我们心灵的“震惊”也许并不亚于引爆了一颗原子弹。它使我们看清了日常生活的杀伤力，它是如何令人一步一步地步入沉沦，异化为“非我”的。

Reviews

Ground Covered with Chicken Feathers is a representative work in the neorealist movement. The novel uses the trivialities of the Lin family’s daily life to display the difficulties and hardships encountered in the lives of ordinary, lower class people throughout the eighties and nineties in China. The pessimism starts with the story of the sour tofu. From then on, the tale is destined to live in the ordinary, the base, and the trivial. A prosaic day-to-day account of events takes the place of any dramatized structure of plot or climax. The matters Liu Zhenyun strings together are continually more ordinary and coarse than the previous one recounted. However, perhaps herein lies the author’s brilliance. In these petty and mundane tales of routine, the reader becomes unconsciously aware that the daily life often devoid of meaning is actually meaningful after all. The shock this causes to the spirit has been described as akin to an atomic bomb exploding. The reader sees clearly the deadly side of everyday life – how it leads people one step at a time toward oblivion and alienates them from their own selves. 

作家简介

Author Profile

刘震云，1958年5月出生于河南延津。1973年入伍。1982年毕业于北京大学中文系，1991年毕业于北京师范大学鲁迅文学院研究生班。历任《农民日报》记者、文化部主任、编委，高级记者。中国作协第五、六、七届全委会委员，北京市青联委员，有突出贡献中青年专家。中国人民大学文学院教授。1982年开始发表作品。1990年加入中国作家协会。著有长篇小说《故乡天下黄花》《故乡相处流传》《一腔废话》《手机》《我叫刘跃进》《一句顶一万句》《我不是潘金莲》《故乡面和花朵》(四卷)等，中短篇小说集《塔铺》《官场》《官人》《刘震云文集》（四卷），中篇小说《新闻》《新兵连》《头人》《单位》《一地鸡毛》《温故一九四二》等。《一地鸡毛》获《中篇小说选刊》优秀作品奖、第五届《小说月报》中篇小说百花奖。

Liu Zhenyun (May 1958 – ) was born in Yanjin County, Henan Province. He joined the army in 1973 and later pursued undergraduate studies in Peking University’s Department of Chinese Language and Literature and postgraduate studies in Beijing Normal University’s Lu Xun School of Literature, graduating in 1982 and 1991 respectively. He served as a reporter, cultural director, editing board member, and senior reporter for Farmers’ Daily, a committee member for the China Writers Association’s (CWA) 5th, 6th, and 7th plenary sessions, an outstanding committee member for the Beijing Youth League, and a professor in Renmin University of China’s School of Liberal Arts.

Liu started publishing his works in 1982 and joined the CWA officially in 1990. His works include the full-length novels Yellow Flowers: All Over Hometown, Hometown Stories Spread, Complete Nonsense, Cellphone, The Cook, the Crook, One Sentence Is Worth Ten Thousand Sentences, and I Did Not Kill My Husband, Flour and Flowers from My Hometown (Four Volumes),  the novellas News, Trainee Company, The Head, The Institute, and Remembering 1942, and the novella/short story collections Tapu Township, Ground Covered with Chicken Feathers, Corridors of Power, Official, and The Collected Works of Liu Zhenyun (Four Volumes).

Several of his works have won awards with: Tapu Township earning the National Outstanding Short Story Award, Selected Fiction’s Outstanding Short Story Award, and the People’s Literature Outstanding Short Story Award; Trainee Company earning the 3rd Fiction Monthly Outstanding Novella Hundred Flowers Award and the 1st Youth Literature Creation Award; The Institute earning Selected Novellas’ Outstanding Work Prize and the 40th Anniversary of the PRC’s Foundation Outstanding Literature Prize; Ground Covered with Chicken Feathers earning Selected Novellas’ Outstanding Work Prize and the 5th Fiction Monthly Outstanding Novella Hundred Flowers Award; Remembering 1942 earning the 1st Selected Chinese Literature Prize and Zhuang Zhongwen Prize; and One Sentence Is Worth Ten Thousand Sentences earning the 8th Mao Dun Literature Prize.

中文概要

Synopsis

小林家的一斤豆腐变馊了。小林老婆下班早，回来看到馊豆腐，便埋怨保姆，保姆说是小林忘了放冰箱，老婆又开始唠唠叨叨地埋怨小林，小林在单位一天不顺，心情就不好，两口子一递一句地吵起架来。这时，有人敲门，进来的是查水表的瘸腿老头，老头来告诉一声，门洞里有人滴水偷水，让大家收敛些。

馊豆腐事件就这样平息了，小林还有些感激这个平时很讨厌的瘸腿老头。但是保姆老闹罢工，两口子商量要调一个离家近的单位，这样老婆就可以照顾家了。于是托了人，两口子不放心，又到超市买了降价的可口可乐，去给人送礼，结果人家根本没有放在眼里，调动的事眼看着就泡了汤。

但更窝心的事还有老家来人。小林家在农村，如今大学毕业分到北京的大单位，家里的人有事没事都来找，一开始，小林使得老婆还热情接待，时间一长，便烦闷起来，加上老家人不讲究，老婆就更加不耐烦，老家一来人，老婆的脸色就难看。这次来的是小林的小学老师，来北京看病，老婆脸色难看，还与小林争吵，老师毕竟是文化人，便告辞走了，小林心里很愧疚。

又过了几天，老婆下班回来，心情大变，说是单位不用调动了，单位领导把班车开到这一带来了。后来打听清楚，原来是单位一个头头的小姨子住在附近。有班车坐是沾了人家小姨子的光。

接下来是孩子入幼儿园的事了，好的幼儿园进不去，只能到居委会办的幼儿园，正当两口子一筹莫展的时候，对门“印度女人”家的丈夫给他们找好了幼儿园，尽管小林夫妇与他们平时也是面和心不和，但关键时候还是远亲不如近邻，夫妻俩打心眼里感激“印度女人”一家。后来，经过观察，发现“印度女人”家是让小林的孩子给她们家孩子陪读。夫妇俩心里想吃了马粪一样感到龌龊。

今年大白菜丰收，单位号召大家买“爱国菜”，但排队，报销弄得挺麻烦。这天，小林下班早，到菜市场去转转，不期遇到了大学同学“小李白”。“小李白”大学时喜欢写诗，毕业后结了还几次婚，跳了好几回槽，最后干脆干起了个体——卖板鸭。两人相见，嘘寒问暖，“小李白”不再写诗，而是谋生要紧，并邀请小林为他看几天摊。

日子就这么鸡毛蒜皮地过着，一天查水电的老头来到家里，要求小林办一件事，是老家里的一个批文在小林单位压着，并送一个微波炉作为谢礼。小林推辞再三，还是收下了。小林对老婆说，其实世界上事情也很简单，只要弄明白一个道理，按道理办事，生活就像流水，一天天过下去，也蛮舒服。当夜，小林睡得很死，半夜做了一个梦，梦见自己睡觉，上边盖着一堆鸡毛，下边铺着许多人掉下的皮屑，柔软舒服，度年如日。又梦见黑鸦鸦无边无际的人群向前涌动，又变成一队队祈雨的蚂蚁。一觉醒来，已是天亮，小林摇头回忆梦境，梦境已是一片模糊。小林又想，如果收拾完大白菜，老婆能用微波炉再给他烤点鸡，让他喝瓶啤酒，他就没有什么不满足的了。

Half a kilogram of tofu has gone sour at Lin’s home. Lin’s wife comes home earlier than him and when she notices the spoiled tofu she blames the maid. The maid retorts that it was Lin who forgot to put it in the freezer, and then the wife begins grumbling about Lin. Lin has had a tough day at work and is not in a great mood. The two begin digging into each other as they argue. Just then, they hear a knock at the door. They open the door and the crippled elderly man who checks the water meter limps in. The old man tells them that somebody has been applying some tricks to use water without letting the meter turn. He is coming to put on a warning for everybody.

The issue with the spoiled tofu is settled in this way. Lin normally dislikes the old man, but at this moment he even feels a little gratitude toward him. As time goes on, the maid continues to threaten to stop working, so Lin and his wife consider getting jobs closer to their home. With such a shift, the wife would also be able to take care of family chores. Thus they ask for someone’s help, and buy some Coca-Cola as a gift for the man. Out of their reality, they buy Coca-Cola, something considered luxury goods at that period in China, when it is on sale at the supermarket, but the man disdains the gift. Thus the plan to change jobs falls flat.

Further disappointment comes along with families and relatives. Lin comes from the countryside, and all his relatives think he can be of great help because he is now having a god job in Beijing. They are always coming asking for help. At first, Lin made his wife receive them warmly, but she becomes increasingly unhappy with this as time goes on. To make things worse, people in the countryside do not know the customs and politeness in the city, so her expression will turn sour whenever someone comes. 

This time, it is Lin’s teacher who taught him in his junior school. He comes to Beijing seeking medical treatment. With his arrival, Mrs. Lin’s face immediately turns ugly, causing Lin to argue with her. Being a cultured man, the teacher takes in the situation and leaves. This fills Lin with guilt.  

Several days later, Mrs. Lin returns from work in a drastically different mood. She explains that there is no longer any need to change jobs as her leader has decided to provide scheduled bus service to their area. Later, it is made fully clear: the leader’s sister-in-law, a fellow employee, is living nearby, and it is for her convenience that he has offered the bus.

The next problem they encounter with is their child’s entering a kindergarten. Their child cannot go to a good nursery school and only has the option of attending the neighborhood nursery. Just as the couple are at their wits’ end, the husband of the “Indian woman” from the apartment opposite them helps to find a good kindergarten. Although they haven’t always seen eye-to-eye, at this moment the neighbours provide the assistance that Lin eagerly want. The Lins are greatly grateful to the “Indian woman’s” family. Eventually, they learn that their neighbors are making their son help their child study. The couple feel like they have “been fed horseshit and tarnished.”

The annual cabbage harvest comes around, and the working post invites everybody to come buy “Patriotic Cabbage.” It is a troublesome task, though, with long queues and a complicated reimbursement process. One day, Lin leaves work early to wander around the vegetable market and unexpectedly encounters an old university classmate, Little Li Bai. He got the nickname because he was fond of writing poetry during university. After graduation, he married several times and jumped between various jobs. Finally, he started his own business selling pressed, salted duck. At the vegetable market, they both ask about each other. Little Li Bai no longer writes poetry, for he thinks it more important to make a living first. He asks Lin to help watch his stall for a few days.

It is in such trivial ways that the Lin family spends their days. One day, the old man who checks the water and electric meters comes by to ask Lin to lend him a hand. A document impacting his hometown has been held up at Lin’s place of work. The old man tries to give him a small microwave oven as a gift, and although Lin refuses it several times, in the end he decides to accept it. Lin tells his wife that as long as you understand a single principle, then things in this world are very simple; if you can act in accordance with that principle, then your life will flow like water. Each day can be comfortable.

That night, he sleeps poorly with many dreams. He has one in which he is asleep and covered with chicken feathers, lying on flakes of human skin. The mat he reclines on is comfortable, and a year passes as if it were a day. He also dreams of seeing an endless, dark mass of people surging forward that then transforms into groups of small ants praying for rain. When he wakes, it is already light outside. Lin shakes his head as he tries to remember the dream. It is all a blur. He thinks to himself that if he can finish collecting the cabbage, and if his wife could use the microwave to roast him some chicken and give him some beer to drink, he will be perfectly satisfied with everything he has.